Running behind dragon: India trails China in solar capacity addition

The contrast is striking - in the first half of 2024, China added over 100 Gw of capacity while India could manage only 14.9 Gw

What a difference six years make? Pre-Covid, India was catching up with China in the race for solar supremacy. Post-pandemic, India has slowed while China has surged. In 2018, the difference between India and China’s solar energy capacity additions were just 17 gigawatts (Gw) — India added 7Gw to China’s 24Gw. Last year, the gap widened 30-fold in China’s favour, with our northern neighbour adding over 200Gw compared to India’s 7.5Gw, a 44 per cent drop year-on-year (Y-o-Y).

In the first half of 2024, China added over 100Gw of solar capacity, according to data from Centre for Research